Displaying UTF chinese characters

Question

Here's my code
          final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
          DropWindow dw = new DropWindow() {
               public void runFile(File f, Object[] extras) {
                    try {
                         String str = IOUtils.readFileAsString(f);
                         for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {
                              System.out.println("char[" + i + " ] = " + (int)str.charAt(i));
                         sb.append(str);
                    catch (IOException iox) {
                         iox.printStackTrace();
          JPanel jp = new JPanel() {
               public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
                    super.paintComponent(g);
                    g.drawString(sb.toString(), getWidth() / 2, getHeight() / 2);
          dw.add(jp);
          WindowUtilities.visualize(dw);when I run this I get
char[0 ] = 20320
char[1 ] = 22909
char[2 ] = 13
char[3 ] = 10
in the command line. On the screen I get 2 squares where I'm hoping my chinese characters will be.
Is it just that I'm not using an international version of java? I just went to the download page and it seems like all java versions are international now. Could it be that my font can't represent the characters?
How can I paint chinese characters?

Answer 1

I don't understand. 'Arial' will never display Chinese. In JRE1.6, the only font I know that displays Chinese is "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni". In 1.5 there was a second one but that seems to have been removed.
When I want to find a font for a particular character set I use the following simple Swing application -
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.ListSelectionModel;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionListener;
public class FontAndCharDisplay extends JFrame
    private JComponent createStyleSelector()
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.add(boldButton);
        panel.add(italicButton);
        ActionListener styleListener = new ActionListener()
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
                updateDisplayOfChars();
        boldButton.addActionListener(styleListener);
        italicButton.addActionListener(styleListener);
        panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Style"));
        return panel;
    private JComponent createSizeSelector()
        int[] sizes =
        {8,9,10,11,12,14,16,18,20,24,28,32, 36, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 84,100};
        final JComboBox sizeSelector = new JComboBox();
        for (int index = 0; index < sizes.length; index++)
            sizeSelector.addItem(new Integer(sizes[index]));
        fontSize = 14;
        sizeSelector.setSelectedItem(new Integer(fontSize));
        sizeSelector.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
                fontSize = ((Integer)sizeSelector.getSelectedItem()).intValue();
                updateDisplayOfChars();
        sizeSelector.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Size"));
        sizeSelector.setOpaque(false);
        return sizeSelector;
    private JComponent createPageSelector()
        String[] pageAddresses = new String[256];
        for (int row = 0; row < 16; row++)
            for (int col = 0; col < 16; col++)
                pageAddresses[row*16+col] = HEX_CHARS[row] + (HEX_CHARS[col] + "00");
        final JComboBox addressSelector = new JComboBox(pageAddresses);
        addressSelector.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
                updateAddressBase(Integer.parseInt((String)addressSelector.getSelectedItem(), 16));
        addressSelector.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Page"));
        addressSelector.setOpaque(false);
        return addressSelector;
    private FontAndCharDisplay()
        super("Font Display");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        JPanel upperPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        JPanel controlsPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1,0));
        controlsPanel.add(createPageSelector());
        controlsPanel.add(createSizeSelector());
        controlsPanel.add(createStyleSelector());
        upperPanel.add(controlsPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        fontSelector = new JList(GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getAvailableFontFamilyNames());
        fontSelector.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
        fontSelector.addListSelectionListener(new ListSelectionListener()
            public void valueChanged(ListSelectionEvent e)
                if (!e.getValueIsAdjusting())
                    updateDisplayOfChars();
        JScrollPane fontNameDisplay = new JScrollPane(fontSelector);
        fontNameDisplay.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Name"));
        upperPanel.add(fontNameDisplay, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        fontSelector.setSelectedIndex(0);
        getContentPane().add(upperPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        // Build the set of components to display the characters
        for (int index = 0; index < 256; index++)
            charDisplayFields.add(new JLabel(""));
        // Build the main character display area
        int startPoint = 0;
        final JPanel charDisplayPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 17));
        charDisplayPanel.add(new JLabel(""));
        for (int col = 0; col < 16; col++)
            charDisplayPanel.add(new JLabel(Character.toString(HEX_CHARS[col])));
        for (int row = 0; row < 16; row++)
            charDisplayPanel.add(new JLabel(Character.toString(HEX_CHARS[row])));
            for (int col = 0; col < 16; col++)
                charDisplayPanel.add((JComponent)charDisplayFields.get(startPoint++));
        JScrollPane characterDisplay = new JScrollPane(charDisplayPanel);
        characterDisplay.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Page Display"));
        getContentPane().add(characterDisplay, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        updateAddressBase(0);
        updateDisplayOfChars();
        pack();
    private void updateAddressBase(int start)
        for (Iterator it = charDisplayFields.iterator(); it.hasNext();)
            JLabel label = (JLabel)it.next();
            label.setText(Character.toString((char)start++));
    private void updateDisplayOfChars()
        // Calculate the style
        int style = 0;
        if (italicButton.isSelected())
            style |= Font.ITALIC;
        if (boldButton.isSelected())
            style |= Font.BOLD;
        // Build the font
        Font font = new Font((String)fontSelector.getSelectedValue(), style, fontSize);
        System.out.println(font);
        // Update all the char labels to use the new font
        for (Iterator it = charDisplayFields.iterator(); it.hasNext();)
            JLabel label = (JLabel)it.next();
            label.setFont(font);
    public static void main(String[] args)
        try
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
            new FontAndCharDisplay().setVisible(true);
        catch (Exception e)
            e.printStackTrace();
    private int fontSize = 10;
    private ArrayList charDisplayFields = new ArrayList(256);
    private JCheckBox boldButton = new JCheckBox("Bold");
    private JCheckBox italicButton = new JCheckBox("Italic");
    private JList fontSelector;
    private static final char[] HEX_CHARS =
    {'0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','A','B','C','D','E','F'};
}Please don't look too close at the code - it was one of my earliest Swing applications.
P.S. These values
char[2 ] = 13
char[3 ] = 10
are just CR and LF and not Chinese.
Edited by: sabre150 on Aug 29, 2008 9:21 PM